The present invention relates generally to cabinets and more particularly to lockable cabinets.
Devices for dispensing articles are well known and widely used in commerce. Such devices are commonly used to dispense tickets, such as lottery tickets, and/or cards, such as phone cards.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,753,897 to K. J. Kasper, there is disclosed an apparatus for dispensing articles such as tickets and cards which includes a cabinet and a plurality of article dispensing assemblies inside the cabinet. Each article dispensing assembly includes a base and a frame for enclosing the articles to be dispensed in a stack. The bases are mounted on a pair of vertical support plates. A gate is disposed behind each frame for receiving articles from its associated frame and allowing only one article at a time to pass through. A toothed blade is disposed underneath each frame and a motor driven rack and pinion is coupled to the toothed blade for bringing the toothed blade into engagement with the lowermost article in the stack, moving said toothed blade so that the lowermost article is transported from the stack into the gate, bringing the toothed blade out of engagement with the article and then moving the toothed blade back to engage the next article in the stack. In one embodiment of the invention each frame is hingedly mounted on its base. In another embodiment of the invention each frame is hingedly and lockably mounted on its base and in still another embodiment of the invention, which is intended especially for use with cards which include an integrated circuit chip onto which information can be written into and read off of, each article dispensing assembly includes a read/write head assembly underneath its frame for reading information off of the chip on the card at the bottom of the stack and/or writing information onto the chip on the card at the bottom of the stack.
Devices for dispensing articles of the type described above are often housed within a security cabinet to prevent theft and/or tampering of the articles to be dispensed thereby.
Security cabinets used to house article dispensing devices are commonly equipped with a lock assembly for locking the door of the cabinet in a closed position, thereby precluding the cabinet from being opened by unauthorized personnel, which is highly desirable. Typically, the lock assembly requires a unique key to be used to unlock the security cabinet.
One type of lock assembly which is well known and widely used in the art utilizes a double lock type arrangement. Specifically, the lock assembly comprises a key operated plug which is removably mounted in a shell. The lock assembly also comprises an attachment device, such as a bolt or screw, which is positioned behind and spaced apart from the shell, the attachment device being mounted on some type of plate. In the operation of such a lock assembly, the plug is first removed using a unique security key. After the plug has been removed, a screwdriver or wrench is then inserted through the bore in the shell and is used to unscrew the attachment device. Once the attachment device has been unscrewed, the door can be opened.
Lock assemblies of the type described above are well known in the art and are widely used in high security applications. In particular, lock assemblies of the type described above are commonly used in vending machines, currency changers, automatic bank tellers or any other similar application where it is desirable to lock the access door of a cabinet, box or other similar device.
Although well known and widely used in commerce, lock assemblies of the type described above suffer a couple notable drawbacks.
As a first drawback, lock assemblies of the type described above are time consuming and labor intensive to use. Specifically, it has been found that the secondary unlocking process in which a screwdriver or wrench is inserted through the bore in the shell and is used to unscrew the attachment device is time consuming and difficult to perform.
As a second drawback, lock assemblies of the type described above are relatively insecure. Specifically, it has been found that the secondary unlocking process in which the attachment device unscrewed can be accomplished using any conventional screwdriver or wrench. As a consequence, once the plug has been removed from the shell, any unauthorized person can use a screwdriver or wrench to access the items contained within the cabinet.